


An Outlaw's end

by Angelicasdean



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst and Tragedy, Canonical Character Death, Introspection, Random & Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-31 18:20:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20119528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelicasdean/pseuds/Angelicasdean
Summary: Arthur was afraid of 3 things.





	An Outlaw's end

**Author's Note:**

> My Tumblr is: Samwrittenbysam where I usually rant about RDR and express my endless love for Arthur Morgan

There are 3 things Arthur is afraid of. Two of which are public, and one that is so very secret, that he only admits it to himself a few moments before he dies. 

The first, is of course, Darkness. Not the darkness of night, no, the darkness of a shut off room, with its windows covered by thick curtains and its walls reflecting nothing. The darkness that is accompanied by silence, save for your breathing. 

The darkness he grew up with, until life threw him onto the streets and eventually, into Dutch and Hosea's camp. 

The second thing he's afraid of is Mountain lions. There's no real need to explain this one, who wants to get mauled to death and bleed out slowly as an animal feasts on your inside? Nobody, that's who. 

The third, and final, thing is dying alone. 

When he was younger, he thought death was the scariest thing. When he was a teenager, death wasn't so much of a fright as it was just an inconvenience. Then, Eliza and Issac came and passed, and death became a monster that festered and nurtured his hatred, became an outcome he sought, only to be disappointed. 

Now, though, death isn't the scariest part. Being completely alone is. The uncertainty of what's left behind, whether your life's work (or in this case, his family) withstood or crumbled. Did you do enough? Could you have done more? Will you be remembered? Or will you lie forgotten? Is death really the end of all things? 

Those questions, they didn't matter. Not now, not as the sun slowly creeps up the horizon, and the breath catches somewhere between his lungs and his throat. He could cough, splutter and spit all he wants, but it'll never clear up his airways. But again, none of that matters. Nothing does, anymore. 

Because he's all alone, and he he was dying, and promises will die with him, an Era will hopefully do as well. The sun rise is pretty, but he would trade it for the swamps or a dirty ditch if it meant having one, or two of the people he cared so much for with him. If it meant the loneliness and sadness digging a hole in his chest left, and got replaced with peacefulness and acceptance. 

No, he didn't fear death. He feared abandonedment. Abandonedment in his last, weakest, most vulnerable state. He had looked at Dutch, silently pleading for him to understand, and in a way, he did. He understood, but he left. 

Left him to die. 

It's an Outlaw's end, he would muse, if his voice wasn't threaded underneath layers upon layers of sick, bloodied mucas stuck in his throat. Hosea had died alone, Annabelle, Mac, Jenny, Kieran. He was just another name to the list. Shot, stabbed, hung, beheaded, and him, sickly and beaten. 

He finally rattles his last breath, and he's all alone while doing so. 

But then he's not 


End file.
